Philippians 1:19-26 - Christ Is Our Hope = No Fear Of Death

In this passage, Paul calls us to something extraordinary. By God's grace, Jesus should be our hope, our very life. If our hope is in Jesus and in seeing him after death, what does that mean for us in this life? For Paul, it meant this life was about the Gospel.

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or be death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

What Paul says here is pretty remarkable. He is in prison in Rome as he writes this, awaiting his sentence. Will he be released or executed? That was the big question. But he doesn't seem to be very worried about that. Notice that half way through the passage Paul basically says he'd like to "depart" and be with Jesus. He is basically saying he's hoping the verdict might be execution, because if so he will get to see Jesus. Do we live with this kind of passion for Jesus?

What does this mean for us? We are to read God's word as if it were written directly to us. It is not only that Paul is calling the Philippians to live like this, but that God is calling all those who follow Jesus to live like this through Paul. Jesus is to be our life, our hearts desire, our hope. That means that we no longer have to grasp for our own satisfaction, comfort and "success" in this life because we know that our hearts desire will be fulfilled when we see Christ face to face when this life is over.

The implication: we, like Paul, can give our lives completely to the mission of Jesus without fear that we will miss out on anything. The reality is that we miss out on everything if we don't give our lives to the mission of Jesus, the creator of the Universe. And when we die, we get God forever if we belong to Christ. There is nothing to lose.